Embrapa and Bayer establish cooperation to support carbon market for agriculture

Embrapa and Bayer are establishing technical cooperation seeking to support the consolidation of a specific carbon market for Brazilian agriculture. The objective of the public-private partnership is to invest in scientific research actions to reduce uncertainties and costs in quantifying the carbon balance by soybean and corn producers, thus enabling the remuneration of these farmers for the environmental benefits produced by reducing emissions. of greenhouse gases (GHG).

This initiative called “Pilot assessment of the carbon balance in corn and soybean production in the Center-South of Brazil: Bayer and Embrapa cooperation for sustainable development” will be conducted with the participation of three Embrapa research centers in the state of São Paulo: Embrapa Agricultural Informatics (Campinas, sp), Embrapa Instrumentation (São Carlos, SP) and Embrapa Environment (Jaguariúna, SP). The pilot research project covers the 2020/2021 agricultural year, lasting 12 months.

“The purpose is to contribute to the appreciation, and consequent economic benefit for the farmer, of the adoption of more sustainable agricultural practices, with more favorable carbon balances, through the definition and evaluation of protocols to estimate, design and monitor the dynamics and carbon balance in production systems for these crops”, says the Embrapa researcher Luís Gustavo Barioni.

Brazilian agriculture already employs several good practices that adapt agriculture, which can bring gains in technical and productive efficiency and also greater income for the farmer. “These practices could have greater adoption with payment for the environmental co-benefits associated with them, in particular the reduction of emissions and increased carbon capture in agricultural soils”, he explains. Giampaolo Pellegrino, researcher at Embrapa and president of the Company's Climate Change Portfolio.

“The proposal is aligned with the challenges for innovation prioritized by the Portfolio's management committee, especially regarding the challenges linked to carbon quantification and the reduction of GHG emissions, which are considered the most sustainable and best practices in agriculture. An important issue that we have always worked on is the adaptation of agriculture linked to these actions, focused on the tripod of sustainability, that is, on environmental, social and economic benefits, which represent the innovation objectives defined in the Portfolio”, says Pellegrino.

There is a focus on disseminating sustainable practices, so that they are increasingly adopted by farmers, bringing more efficiency to the agricultural system and promoting improved income in the countryside. The benefits go beyond reducing emissions, including adapting agriculture, making it more resilient and promoting balance in production systems, with fewer impacts due to climate change. The aim is also to generate greater productivity due to more appropriate management, resulting in greater production profitability and also improving the farmer's quality of life.

“Farmers can really contribute a lot to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by optimizing carbon capture and storage in the soil and being rewarded for action. That's why Bayer is working in partnership with them to work towards a low-carbon future in agriculture through the Bayer Carbon Initiative”, says the president of Bayer's agricultural division for Latin America, Rodrigo Santos.

Through the adoption of low-carbon practices, such as effective land use and better management of productive and agricultural areas, agriculture-related emissions can be significantly reduced and more carbon can be captured in the soil – benefiting the planet and the profitability of farmers. producers, as this way they can produce more food on the same land, in addition to selling the captured carbon, highlights the president.

International green funds

The expectation is that, with the incorporation of these characteristics, good Brazilian agricultural practices can more easily access international funds focused on financing sustainable actions and mitigating global warming, caused by GHG emissions in agriculture. The researchers warn that these funds are extremely strict regarding guarantees that the financed activity actually offers the benefit of carbon stock in the agricultural environment.

Through the partnership, Embrapa and Bayer intend to change this context, contributing to breaking down these barriers and offering, in the medium and long term, protocols that allow estimating and monitoring emissions in an agile and low-cost way, while maintaining the accuracy and credibility necessary for international acceptance. This will allow Brazil to move towards the development of a national carbon market that mediates between Brazilian farmers and international green funds.

“Brazil already promotes bold actions in the establishment of conservationist production systems, such as direct planting and integrated production systems, among others, which have demonstrated an increase in organic matter in the soil in relation to conventional cultivation management or even native areas, particularly in the Cerrados, thus demonstrating the ability to sequester carbon in the soil”, recalls the Embrapa researcher Ladislau Martin Neto. “It is a great victory for agricultural research and for Brazilian rural producers, supported by a globally recognized input industry”, he adds.

According to the general head of Embrapa Environment, Marcelo Morandi, sustainability is something concrete, measurable, that can be constructed and priced and that has definitively entered the agriculture agenda. “This path is inevitable. We are part of global markets that require this, and we are already aware that there is no other way to move forward,” he says.

Morandi highlights that, if in the past the increase in production was based on the expansion of the area without major concerns about the consequences, today the growth of agriculture and livestock farming is guided by productivity gains and environmental concerns. For him, advances in productivity guarantee resource-saving effects, in addition to deepening producers' environmental awareness.

“As a result, this partnership will be a major milestone, because it will allow the construction of an appropriate metric for estimating carbon sequestration in the soil in tropical growing conditions, based on good agricultural practices. This will not only allow the mitigation of the effects of climate change, as well as the pricing of this environmental service provided by the production system, in addition to what is already done in preservation areas. Therefore, it opens a new field for green investments in agriculture”, he assesses.

In this initiative, Bayer will contribute by granting access to soil carbon quantification data and information relating to the production systems of clients whose contracts grant such authorization, in addition to financing the activities to be carried out. Embrapa, in turn, will offer in return a specialized computational and laboratory structure and the technical competence of the team of multidisciplinary professionals, to generate technical-scientific solutions that bring the expected improvements and strengthen the use of digital technologies, in accordance with the general head of Embrapa Agricultural Informatics, Silvia Massruhá.

Methodologies 

The pilot project will apply innovative methodologies and techniques in agri-environmental modeling developed by Embrapa research centers, so that Bayer can remunerate farmers who, by adopting good practices encouraged by the company, were able to improve adaptive capacity and balance carbon in their production systems.

However, the Embrapa researchers emphasize that the technical-scientific improvements, necessary to overcome the barriers highlighted and evolutionarily offer the credibility necessary for international recognition, and even possible registration with a certification body with global coverage, allowing access to green funds, will be obtained with the development of the medium and long-term stage, that is, approximately four years, in a new proposal from Embrapa with Bayer, as a sequel to the pilot.

The researcher Marília Folegatti, from Embrapa Meio Ambiente, emphasizes that for grain producers to access a carbon market in the future, which is Bayer's intention, it will be necessary to quantify the carbon balance of grain production systems, but also the carbon footprint of the products . “This carbon footprint is calculated by Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), a technique developed to verify the impact of products on the environment”, he explains.

In LCA, the environmental effects associated with production activities are analyzed throughout the entire life cycle of the product. This information is already required in some international commercial relationships. According to the researcher, this metric also serves as a tool for environmental management at the farm level. “By knowing the aspects that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions from grains, it will be possible for producers to make necessary interventions in their production process, and thus effectively contribute to their mitigation”, she highlights.

“Soil carbon stock measurements vary in space and time, and collecting this information on a large scale and periodically is a major challenge for establishing a global carbon market”, assesses the head of Technology Transfer at Embrapa Instrumentação , Deborah Milori.

In 2018, the Unit licensed technologies using lasers to the private sector to quantify carbon in the soil (method using LIBS spectroscopy – Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy) and evaluate its stability (method using LIFS spectroscopy – Laser-Induced Fluorescence Spectroscopy).

“These new methods, without chemical sample preparation, are cost-effective and very fast. These technical characteristics make it possible to quickly assess soil carbon stocks on rural properties and allow monitoring of the evolution of accumulation and loss processes as a function of time. In this way, producers who work with conservationist soil management and accumulate carbon in the soil will be able to receive payment for this environmental service”, observes Milori.

In addition to helping to estimate soil carbon stocks, biogeochemical modeling and the use of crop productivity and soil carbon dynamics simulators will make it possible to predict the expected amount of variation in carbon stocks. The assessments will be assisted by grouping, typology and characterization analyzes of the production systems covered by the project, considering the data and parameters required by the biogeochemical and LCA models. It will also be possible to generate process inventories and Life Cycle Inventories (LCI) to estimate the carbon footprint, through LCA, for typical production systems.

Among the methodologies adopted in the pilot project are protocols for quantifying carbon stocks in the soil, with the analysis of national and international methods, with the aim of generating a national reference protocol, in addition to the application of innovative and low-cost techniques to monitoring and checking these stocks. Technical reports will be generated on the typification of production systems, evaluation of biogeochemical models and estimation of the variation in carbon stocks and uncertainties, which will allow testing and attesting the use of computational solutions and mathematical simulation as a solution for estimating carbon dynamics in a objective, accurate and low cost.

“Bayer is stepping up a transparent, collaborative and science-based approach to help producers adopt sustainable agricultural practices by establishing carbon initiatives. The company’s objective is to release additional revenue streams for producers, while making its contribution to climate change mitigation,” says Santos. “Bayer will continue to work with various links in the value chain and climate experts, aiming to create conditions for carbon projects, which have science as a basis, favoring producers technically and economically, as well as partners willing to participate in the carbon market” , he emphasizes.